Search - Buddy Rich, Alla Rakha :: Rich a La Rakha

Interesting historical meeting

Bodhi Heeren | Copenhagen | 05/10/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"George Harrison (and Brian Jones) really started an upsurge in interest for Indian music, which led to more and more Western musician playing with the stars of classical Indian music.



Here we get an interesting meeting between superdrummer Buddy Rich and tabla-virtuoso Alla Rakha, known from his countless recordings with Ravi Shankar. And in fact the illustrious Ravi takes part of the proceedings here having composed and arranged two of the tracks - and having a short konakol duet with Allah on the last track. Other musicians on the record are the renowned jazz/New Age flutist Paul Horn and sitarist Sahmim Ahmed.



Considering that the traditional Western drumkit is an odd instrument in the setting of Indian classical music, Rich does a very fine job, playing some fine solos in odd meters. And jamming away on a dholak on what might be his best effort "Duet in Dadra". Fans should be warned though, that Buddy only plays on the first 3 tracks (= side 1 of the LP). The two final tracks are Alla Rakha solos, very well recorded soundwise and showing just what a marvelous musicain Zakir Hussain's father was.



As always with BGO the packing is excellent, and we not only get the original very insightful linernotes by the late Collin Walcott, but also an uptodate essay from Ken Hunt.



While not quite on par with Ravi Shankar's meeting with Yehudi Menuhin this is not just a curious oddity, but timeless, creative Music.

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